To Solve
by Nobody Apologist
Summary: Summer camp, loud children, and confusion.


**i needed to write some straight up fluff for these two. erika = liechtenstein, angelique = seychelles, evalyn = wy, erland = ladonia, ehren = kugelmugel, aurel = moldovia, norio = nikko nikko republic, marcello = seborga.**

* * *

Emil supposed that he could have found a worse place to get his volunteer hours. There was always the monotonous task of filing, after all. Facilitating little kids at a two week long summer camp was heaven in comparison, even if he was arguably the worst camp counsellor there.

Matthias, who was in charge of the entire operation, was pretty much created to be good with kids. Angelique and Erika were two balls of sunshine that the kids gravitated towards. Li Xiao was practically a child himself despite his initially stoic appearance. Emil was simply there, and was probably at the bottom of every child's favourite leader list - if he was even on them at all.

Angelique, Erika, and Matthias had all protested that it wasn't true when Emil had jokingly brought it up during the counsellor's meeting at the end of the first week. Li Xiao had just laughed.

Emil had no idea what that laugh was meant to imply. Li Xiao had been a mystery since the minute Emil had met him, and Emil was never sure what Li Xiao meant by anything. He could have been laughing at something else entirely for all Emil knew, and that frustrated him to no end.

Angelique had some misconstrued notion that he had a crush on Li Xiao, which was completely absurd. But the more she teased him about it, the more he began to consider it, and the more he began to question his decision of not staying home to help his brother file papers.

The turning point occurred three days before the kids would go back home and Emil could get Matthias to sign off his hours. The four teams that had been assigned to the four younger leaders were competing against each other in various activities that were mostly races in some form or another. Matthias was running around between and during each activity to set things up, take pictures, and tell terrible jokes that the majority of the kids laughed uncontrollably at.

Emil and Li Xiao both arrived at the field behind the cabins with a train of children in tow, the former turning his head away when the flash of Matthias' camera went off. He turned and sprinted towards the main building where Angelique and Erika were most likely in the midst of explaining how the building block race was supposed to work.

"Alright," Li Xiao clapped his hands together. "You all know how relay races work, yeah?"

Both groups of children nodded and yelled "Yeah!"

"Good. Because that gives us some time to make things interesting."

Emil gave Li Xiao a questioning look. Whenever Li Xiao "made things interesting" the children got wildly competitive for whatever prize he offered. Last time the prize had been that the kids could draw whatever they wanted on Emil's arms, and he still had faded shapes covering both of them.

"Losing team has to do whatever the winning team tells them to until the end of the day."

Li Xiao looked to Emil for approval; one of the only expressions of Li Xiao's that Emil had managed to decipher.

Emil shrugged. "Unless it's illegal or unsafe."

Some of the kids made joking noises of disappointment, while the others were far too excited about what they could force the other team to do afterwards. Peter and Evalyn were involved in another argument over who would win; an argument they'd really been having since breakfast that had been interrupted once or twice.

Emil and Li Xiao herded their respective groups of kids to one end of the field, reminding the children of the rules of the race. Once all the children were lined up - Evalyn and Peter both insisted on running last - Li Xiao gave the first two kids the signal to start running.

Erland nearly tripped over his own feet while he was running back. Li Xiao had to lightly push Ehren into a run when the baton was handed to them. Aurel fell down after skidding to a halt to pass the baton to Norio, who nearly fell down himself when he turned around to run back to his team. And Peter got a head start on Evalyn, solidifying the victory of Li Xiao's team.

"I would've won if you hadn't cheated!" Evalyn protested.

Peter stuck his tongue out at her.

Li Xiao's team was merciless in their victory. They gave any command that came to their heads, even forcing Emil's team to forfeit a race at some point. Matthias found it hilarious, and decided to keep it as a prize to motivate next year's batch of children.

After somehow managing to come in third place for the day, Emil's team vowed to win every single competition in retaliation. Erika's team, who had come in last, decided that an alliance was their best bet and Evalyn had made one of the terms for the alliance that Peter had to be taken down. Angelique giggled throughout the entire exchange.

After the somehow louder than usual supper - during which Li Xiao encouraged his team to brag endlessly about coming in first - Emil and Li Xiao were assigned dish duty while Matthias, Angelique, and Erika herded the children out into main room of the building. Two of the counsellor's were in charge of cleaning up after supper, which was a component that Matthias had added to give the long suffering kitchen staff a break in the evenings. Emil was in the midst of rinsing off a plate, carefully avoiding the small lumps of food that clung to it, when Li Xiao came over and stood next to him.

"So I haven't cashed in my victory bonus yet."

Emil finished rinsing the plate, and turned the sink off. "I wasn't aware you were included in that deal."

"Of course I am." He gave Emil a handful of cutlery, and Emil turned to sink back on. "I came up with it."

"Well?" Emil asked, dodging the water that splashed off the utensils. "What do you want?"

"Kiss me."

Emil managed to only drop one fork. He shut off the water, picked said fork back up, and placed it on top of the rinsed plates alongside its brethren. He turned, grabbed Li Xiao's shoulders, somehow avoided making eye contact, and pressed his lips against Li Xiao's.

Emil had only kissed someone once before, and that had been an accident where he and a stranger - who, know that he thought about it, looked like an older version of Marcello - had run into each other at an unfortunate angle. Kissing Li Xiao was a much more pleasant experience, and probably would be even without the comparison.

Emil loosened his grip on Li Xiao's shoulders before pulling away. Once he finally opened his eyes - which took a lot more effort than it should have - Li Xiao smiled at him and said, "I meant on the cheek."

Emil smiled back. "Sure you did."


End file.
